Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari (LN) - Volume 21 - Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven: The Imitations (Improved)

Our preparations were swift, however. Everyone in the village, including the heroes Ren and Fohl, had plenty of experience fighting the waves by now and were always ready for another battle. We had boosted our strength in numerous ways since the last one of these. That meant we should be able to end it pretty quickly.

“Bubba! We’re going to show you how much stronger we’ve become too!” Keel said with an excited howl.

“Good. Do your best,” I told her. At her side, Ren was gripping his sword and concentrating hard. Then he looked up and spoke.

“Naofumi,” he started.

“Hey, don’t get all stiff on me. You’ve collapsed once already under the stress,” I reminded him.

“I know,” he replied, glancing over to where Eclair was standing with Melty. Eclair gave a sigh and came over to put a hand on Ren’s shoulder.

“We have Hero Iwatani with us. We just have to do our part,” Eclair told him.

“I know that too. Just do our part. We don’t have Itsuki or Motoyasu here, but having you with us, Naofumi . . . that is reassuring,” Ren admitted. Honestly, I was more worried about what was going on in the future with those two that were left in charge. We could return to a real rampage. Itsuki was making good progress, so the issue was more likely with Motoyasu. We just had to pray that Trash was making good use of Filo. In fact, Filo might be the one we had to worry about the most with Motoyasu after her all the time.

“Oh, hold on! Holn said she made some ‘little old cool weapons,’ which she showed me back in the lab!” Keel said. With that, Keel rushed off to the lab and returned with Rat, Mikey, and . . . the ancient weapons we had found in the filolial ruins, which had appeared to be imitations of the four holy weapons.

“She really doesn’t miss a trick, does she?” Rat said with a sigh. In her hands she was holding the ancient weapon (in the shape of a spear) that the high priest had used.

“Raph,” said Mikey, who was carrying three more of them. He passed them to those who were good in battle, including Eclair and Dafu-chan.

“Those are out of magic, right? They can’t even be used,” I said. “What’s she hoping to achieve with them?”

“Don’t look at me,” Rat said. “She started playing around with these all on her own. There’s even a manual here on how to use them.” Rat swung the spear she was holding and it turned into a sword. “This sucks down a little too much magic for me to use. She seems to have modified them so anyone can use them, anyway.” Rat proceeded to read to us the instruction manual that Holn had left behind. She had modified the replicas of the four holy weapons, allowing for imitations of skills to be unleashed while only consuming a small amount of magic. The output was a ratio based on the volume of magic the user had access to. So those with more magic could get a bigger bang for their buck. If there was an issue, it was that they couldn’t reach the same level of attack power as the actual holy or vassal weapons. They couldn’t match weapons made from the best materials, like the guardian beast weapons or legendary weapons, but considering them as somewhat inferior holy weapons, we could probably still find a spot for them. They were able to re-create skills to a certain extent but couldn’t match the real thing.

“Oh!” Keel exclaimed. “I’ve never seen a display like this before! Is this what you see all the time, Bubba?”

“Holn says here that it’s slightly different,” Rat replied, checking the manual again. “A simplified version.”

“Honestly, I’m more impressed by this than I am by her work modifying Mikey and Keel,” I replied. I had to wonder at how she handled herself, modifying these weapons like this but then leaving them lying around in the lab.

“She probably doesn’t enjoy messing around with something other people have already created,” Rat said.

“You’re the same way, aren’t you?” I quipped, causing her brow to furrow and her tongue to click.

“I guess I am. That’s why I understand her urge to play around with things in her free time,” Rat replied. In this case, it sounded like we had some versatile new weapons that were a little vanilla when it came to their output.

“Hey, Naofumi. Are you planning on deploying these during the wave?” Melty asked, looking a little concerned.

“I don’t think we should be holding anything back,” I replied. “If they start to seem too dangerous to use, toss them away. That should cover it.” The others shouted their general agreement. Eclair turned hers into a sword and swung it around.

“I think I can handle this too,” Eclair said. “I’ll be doing my part too, Ren, so please don’t feel the pressure too badly.”

“Okay,” he replied. “But please be careful. I don’t have an especially good impression of these weapons.” I understood where he was coming from. The high priest had been swinging that thing around like a lunatic, and now we were going to use it ourselves.

“They do seem to want to resolve the waves . . .” Natalia said as she watched this exchange, still a little unsure about us.

“I think they are proactively trying to discharge their duties as heroes,” the Water Dragon said supportively.

“It sounds like something happened with Mamoru,” Natalia said, a little pointedly. “Do you have anything to report to me?”

“Nope,” I replied casually. “I was just letting him bend my ear a little. You know how it is. Being a hero is tough work.” I wasn’t lying. We’d listened to Mamoru’s issues and helped him find a solution, that was all. “You’re a pacifier, Natalia, so maybe providing a little mental care for the holy weapon heroes would make your job easier in the long run,” I offered.

“A bold suggestion, future Shield Hero, but you are not wrong,” the Water Dragon said, choosing to side with me in this. “Being a pacifier is about more than just killing miscreant heroes. You need to help lead the heroes along the correct path for the sake of the world.” I almost felt sorry for Natalia.

“Very well. I will learn whatever I can from him,” she replied, with an annoyed look on her face and a sigh in her tone that matched closely with Raphtalia.

“Dafu, dafu!” said Dafu-chan, seemingly fighting back. Maybe she had a problem with the Water Dragon.

“What was that? You think I’m looking down on her, making these proclamations without doing anything myself?” the Water Dragon replied. “I am watching over her. That’s what I’m doing.”

“Dafu, dafu, dafu!” Dafu-chan continued aggressively. She always seemed to be looking for a fight recently. I understood that she probably didn’t like Holn or the Water Dragon very much, but I had to wonder again about her life. She was residual thoughts being held here in this world—we knew that much—but I wondered why she hadn’t turned into her Heavenly Emperor form yet. Insufficient energy, perhaps.

“Oh boy . . .” Raphtalia had a troubled expression on her face. I hoped she wasn’t about to spill the beans on Mamoru. It might still turn out to be a mistake, but if we reported on him now, then it really would be over. Dafu-chan had to understand that too, so hopefully everyone just kept their mouths shut. Raphtalia seemed to realize what I was thinking, because she came out and whispered to me, “I know what you want to say, Mr. Naofumi, and I’m not going to say anything, but this isn’t ideal.” She was worried about Natalia getting upset about being left out of the loop. She was serious about her mission, but also super intense. She might be a good pacifier, capable of keeping heroes in check, but with the waves going on, it was also tough for her to do that job.

“How are you going to handle this wave, pacifier?” I asked her.

“I’ll help out, for the sake of this world, so long as none of the heroes go off on a rampage. My weapon should be able to help too,” Natalia said. She was using a sakura stone of destiny weapon, along with techniques derived from those stones, which would provide excellent effects against heroes from other worlds.

“Okay then. Let’s all get over this wave together,” I said. Looking at the time until the wave in my field of view, I saw that there were only a few minutes left. I formed up our party, like normal, and performed the final checks to prepare for the wave’s arrival.

“Brother,” Fohl said, coming over.

“What’s up?” I replied, hoping he would keep it short.

“A lot happened last night. I was there to see the beginnings of the hakuko,” he stated.

“Yeah, I get it,” I replied. Now we knew where the four races of Siltvelt, including Fohl, had come from. The filolials too. It seemed likely that Mamoru and the others would bring them out amid the confusion after the worlds were fused. Those from the Sword and Spear world would think they had come from the Bow and Shield one, and those from the Bow and Shield would think the opposite. That was one benefit of going to a real chaotic time. Pretty impressive too. This was what it meant to get a glimpse behind the veil of history. We would need to let Melty in on all this sooner rather than later.

“Fohl, try to get along with Cian,” I told him. She was his distant ancestor, after all.

“I understand what you mean . . . but I’m not good at interacting with others. We hakuko are pretty hot-blooded,” he replied. That was true; they could be quite a wild bunch. But Fohl wasn’t a pure-blooded hakuko. He was also continuing the bloodline of his human mother.

“I think Atla would have got on with her better,” I commented.

“Brother . . . I’ll admit that Atla was pretty hot-blooded herself . . . but still, on second thought I don’t want to admit it. She was a hakuko too . . . but in Siltvelt, Atla was . . .” Fohl rambled to himself. It sounded like maybe he had started to admit that Atla had been pretty hot-blooded herself. Right now he sounded like he was about to have a panic attack.

“Is it rude to compare Cian to Atla?” I pondered.

“Brother, what do you mean by that?” Fohl asked.

“Do I have to spell it out?” I replied. Fohl looked away at my question. He had to understand—Cian was far more docile than Atla had ever been. She was a cat. Not some raging tiger. She might become a tiger in the future, but for now she was a cat.

“I’ll try talking to her . . . regardless of the hakuko connection,” Fohl eventually replied awkwardly. That sounded fine to me. Fohl was good at taking care of other people. Cian seemed to sense something from him too, because she wasn’t on her guard around him. He was an easy person to find a comfortable distance with.

Melty and Ruft came over.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen during this wave, but you can leave the rear to us,” Melty said.

“Sure thing. You handle business,” I said. Ruft was also a pretty good fighter, but we were better off having him support Melty rather than putting him on the front lines.

“Analysis of the monsters we will face, efficient securing of combat formations, there’s all sorts of work to be done. We don’t have my mother or father here with us, but I’ll work to keep any damages down to a minimum,” Melty assured me.

“Nothing to worry about!” Ruft chimed in. “We drove off Piensa, so we can handle this! There’s nothing we can’t overcome so long as we have you with us, Naofumi!”

“You said it. Past, future, I don’t care. The waves aren’t stopping us,” Melty asserted. That was when the wave arrived. Since I was a hero, there was a problem for this world that I had to help with, and that was to minimize the damages of the waves.

My field of vision switched over as we were instantly transported to where the wave was happening.